Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and by various magnetic observatories, institutions and individuals who have offered their cooperation. The stations of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism will be probably: (1) La Paz, Bolivia; (2) Huancayo (north of belt of totality); (3) Near Sobral, Brazil; (4) Lle Principe or Libreville, French Congo; (5) Stations outside belt of totality by field parties as found possible. At station 3 complete magnetic and electric observations will be attempted. The general scheme of work proposed by the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism is as follows: 1. Simultaneous magnetic observations of any or all of the elements according to the instruments at the observer's disposal, every minute from May 29, 1919, 9h 58m A.M. to 4h 32m P.M. Greenwich civil mean time, or from May 28, 21h 58m to 4h 32m May 29, Greenwich astronomical mean time. (To insure the highest degree of accuracy, the observer should begin to work early enough to have everything in complete readiness in proper time. Past experience has shown it to be essential that the same observer make the readings throughout the entire interval. If possible, similar observations for the same interval of time as on May 29 should be taken on May 28 and 30, to afford some means of determining the undisturbed course of the magnetic declination.) 2. At magnetic observatories, all necessary precautions should be taken to insure that the self-recording instruments will be in good operation not only during the proposed interval but also for some time before and after, and eye-readings should be taken in addition. wherever it is possible and convenient. It is recommended that, in general the magnetograph be run on the usual speed throughout the interval, and that, if a change in recording speed be made, every precaution possible be taken to guard against instrumental changes likely to affect the continuity of the base line. 3. Atmospheric-electric observations should be made to the extent possible with the observer's equipment and personnel at his disposal. At least observations of potential gradient and conductivity (preferably both positive and negative) should be made. 4. Meteorological observations in accordance with the observer's equipment should be made at convenient periods (as short as possible) throughout the interval. It is suggested that, at least, temperature be read every fifth minute (directly after the magnetic reading for that minute). 5. Observers in the belt of totality are requested to take the magnetic reading every thirty seconds during the interval, 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after the time of totality, and to read temperature also every thirty seconds, before the magnetic readings. It is hoped that full reports will be forwarded as soon as possible for publication in the journal of Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity. Those interested are referred to the results of the observations made during the solar eclipse of June 8, 1918, the publication of which was begun in the September, 1918, issue of the journal. A summary of the magnetic results obtained is given in the March, 1919 issue. WASHINGTON, D. C., LOUIS A. BAUER SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS CHARLES LEANDER DOOLITTLE, Flower professor of astronomy, emeritus, at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Flower Observatory, died on March 3, aged seventyfive years. DR. WILLIAM WILLIAMS KEEN had conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Pennsylvania on University Day. In conferring the degree, Provost Smith paid the following tribute to Dr. Keen: William Williams Keen, voluminous writer on medical subjects, especially surgery, in which you have an international reputation; corresponding member of learned societies in England, Scotland, Belgium, France and Italy; honored at home and abroad by ancient univer sities with their highest degrees; author of meritorious historical documents; active participant in all social movements of an uplifting nature, sturdy patriot; only commissioned officer in the present war who was a commissioned officer during the Civil War; beloved teacher, honored citizen.. THE same degree was conferred on Dr. Frederick Petersen, of whom Provost Smith said: Eminent psychiatrist, and author of profound works upon the most mysterious mental diseases; learned in medical jurisprudence and in toxicology; poet of distinction, to whom the literary world is also indebted for hidden gems from the Swedish and Chinese literature. MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM C. GORGAS, formerly surgeon-general of the United States Army, has been named a commander of the French Legion of Honor. DR. STEPHEN SMITH celebrated his ninetysixth birthday on February 19. He is in good health and only resigned from his position on the New York State Board of Charities in February, 1918, after having served on the board for thirty-four years. COLONEL SIR RONALD Ross has been appointed consultant in malaria cases to the British Minister of Pensions. He will advise on these cases in addition to his duties as consultant in malaria to the War Office. THE Belgian Surgical Society, at its first meeting since July, 1914, elected Professor Depage as president. PROFESSOR JULIUS STIEGLITZ, chairman of the department of chemistry at the university of Chicago, has been appointed chairman of the committee on publication of compendia of chemical literature for the American Chemical Society. WILLIAM BOWIE, major of engineers, U. S. Army, was honorably discharged on February 28. He has resumed his duties at Washington, D. C., as Chief of the Division of Geodesy, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. H. F. STALEY, formerly professor of ceramic engineering at Iowa State College, who had been engaged in war research at the Bureau of Standards since June, 1918, has joined the staff of the Bureau as metallurgical ceramist. COLONEL G. A. BURRELL, of the Chemical Warfare Service, has returned to private chemical engineering work at Pittsburgh, Pa. MR. GEORGE W. MOREY, of the geophysical laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, has been granted leave of absence for one year to take charge of the optical glass plant of the Spencer Lens Co., Hamburg, N. Y. THE Utah Agricultural Experiment Station has recently established a department of range management under the direction of Professor Raymond J. Becraft, formerly of the U. S. Forest Service. One of the first problems to be undertaken by the department will be to increase the carrying capacity of Utah ranges by scientific management. ED. L. AYERS, formerly chief nursery inspector in the Texas Department of Agriculture will become plant pathologist in the Extension Service to succeed Frederick A. Blodgett. PROFESSOR JOHN N. VAN DER VRIES has resigned his position as professor of mathematics at the University of Kansas to continue work as secretary of the Central District of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, 801 Otis Building, Chicago. MR. FRANK A. DICKEY, registrar of Columbia College, has resigned to become the business manager of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research. DR. WILLIAM I. DUBLIN, statistician of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, has returned to the United States, from war service under the American Red Cross, in Italy, Greece and Serbia. DR. H. GIDEON WELLS, of the department of pathology at the University of Chicago, who is also director of the Atho S. A. Sprague Memorial Institute, recently left Constantinople as head of the American Red Cross Mission to Roumania with relief supplies for that country. Dr. Wells has already spent several months in Serbia and Roumania in connection with Red Cross medical work. CAPTAIN LEO M. BEILIN, M. C., U. S. Army, of Springfield, Ill., started for Siberia, on February 15, where he is to be placed in charge of a unit to combat typhus. DR. L. A. BAUER left Washington early in March for England, where he will organize an expedition for magnetic and electric observation during the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 at a station in South Africa; he expects next to proceed to South America and arrange for similar observations during the eclipse there. His eclipse station will probably be La Paz, Bolivia. While in South America he will visit various institutions and return to Washington next July. MR. HENRY WIGGLESWORTH, of the General Chemical Company, has accepted a commission for the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce to study the dyestuff and textile conditions in France. PROFESSOR L. M. WINSOR, B.S., specialist in irrigation and drainage for the Utah Experiment Station in cooperation with the U. S. Department of Agriculture, who has been granted a leave of absence, recently left for South America to determine the possibilities of bringing a large tract of arid land under cultivation in Chile by irrigation. The land is controlled by the Guggenheim mining interests. AT the meeting of the Baltimore City Medical Society, held in Osler Hall on February 21, Brig.-Gen. William S. Thayer, chief consultant of the medical division, and MajorGen. John M. T. Finney, chief consultant of the surgical division, Medical Corps, United States Army, spoke on the work in France. PROVOST EDGAR F. SMITH, of the University of Pennsylvania, delivered an address on "Early Mineralogists and Chemists" at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, on Tuesday evening, February 18. THE sixth lecture of the series of The Harvey Society lectures will be by Dr. Yandell Henderson on "Physiology of the Aviator" at the New York Academy of Medicine on Saturday evening, March 29, at 8:30. The Harvey Lectures are open to the public. LIEUTENANT COLONEL A. M. PATTERSON, professor of anatomy in the University of Liverpool, who has held the office of assistant inspector of military orthopedics for several years, has died at the age of fifty-six years. M. COGGIA, assistant in the Marseilles Observatory for more than fifty years, died on January 15, at the age of seventy years. THE work on volcanology at Kilauea has been placed under the U. S. Weather Bureau. The transfer was effective on February 15 and the appointment of the Director Professor T. A. Jaggar has been approved. An appropriation of $10,000 for the year is made by the government for continuing the work heretofore maintained by the volcano Research Association. THE thirtieth session of the Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, will be held from June to September, 1919. Regular class work will be held for six weeks beginning July second. The courses of instruction include field zoology by Drs. Walter Kornhauser and Parshley; bird study by Mrs. Walter; comparative anatomy by Professor Pratt; animal bionomics by Dr. Davenport; systematic and field botany by Dr. John W. Harshberger and Mr. C. A. Stiteler; advanced botany by Dr. Harshberger; heredity by Professor Harold D. Fish and training course for field workers in eugenics by Drs. C. B. Davenport, H. H. Laughlin and Harris H. Wilder. Copies of the announcement may be obtained from the Biological Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, N. Y. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL DR. SAMUEL W. LAMBERT, professor of clinical medicine and dean of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Columbia University, has resigned. MAJOR J. H. MATHEWS, Ordnance Dept., U. S. A., has been released from military service and has returned to the University of Wisconsin, where he has been promoted to a full professorship in charge of the courses in physical chemistry. It is absolutely necessary that you write some notices in the American scientific journals in order to save the Selys Catalogue. I have lost twenty subscriptions in Europe and I must retrieve them in the United States. Financial aid from the deSelys family is impossible for a long time. Each new subscription will bring a little capital to the reconstitution of this work which can be brought to a termination with a little energy and with the aid of all. The great institutions, libraries, etc., ought to put some of their pennies into subscriptions. Here we have suffered much from the slow and inexorable hunger, from the nervous depression of our abominable slavery that no one can describe. Our museum and our collections are saved, but I have lost one of my two sons who was at the front, a fine boy of 24 years, a captain of engineers. I have lost a part of my small fortune and my health, but more I fear that the sufferings from hunger have compromised the future of my younger son and of my grandchildren. The balance sheet is sad and I have little courage to take it up. I would not, however, see the Catalogue, to which I have devoted myself for years, founder. This is why I call for your aid. Write to your entomological friends and sustain me. Yours sorrowfully, G. SEVERIN. The Baron Edmond de Selys Longchamps (1813-1900) was known as the chief authority The publication of the "Catalogue Systematique et Descriptif des Collections Zoologiques du Baron Edm. de Selys Longchamps," "designed to realize the supreme desire of their late possessor and at the same time to serve science," was begun in 1906 under the care of the two sons, M. Severin and a number of zoologists, who undertook, as specialists, the preparation of certain parts thereof. It was planned to appear in 32 fascicules of a varying number of pages, of large quarto size, illustrated by text figures and some plates. The subscription price for the complete work was fixed at 25 centimes (20 centimes for the fascicules on Orthoptera, Lepidoptera and Vertebrata) per page of text, 2.75 francs per colored plate and 2 francs per black and white plate, with an increase of 25 per cent. for subscription to separate parts only. At the beginning of the war 21 fascicules had appeared, treating of the Orthoptera, Embiidæ, Perlodides, Megaloptera, Trichoptera, Ascalaphida, Libelluline, Corduline, Æschninæ, Birds, Mammals, Amphibia and Fishes, at a total price of 703.50 francs. The eight fascicules on the Libelluline by Dr. F. Ris, of Rheinau, Switzerland, constitute the most extensive monograph on that subfamily ever produced, and several other groups have been dealt within a similar fashion. Several fascicules are in such an advanced state of preparation or of printing that they can be issued in a short time. There are many reasons-scientific, humanitarian, international, appreciative of the nation which has suffered so fearfully-why the Selysian catalogue should be carried to completion and it is to be hoped that readers of this appeal will personally do all in their power to aid in this accomplishment by inducing institutions which they can influence to subscribe. All correspondence relating to subscriptions should be addressed to M. G. Severin, Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle, 31 Rue Vautier, Bruxelles, Belgium. PHILIP P. CALVERT UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA CROSS-SECTION LINES ON BLACKBOARDS AND THEIR ILLUMINATION THOSE Who wish cross-section rulings on blackboards temporarily, thus leaving the board free for other work after the curve-plotting is finished, can do so by a simple device. On a sheet of white paper make a ruling of lines, 2 cm. apart, the whole grid being 16 X 24 cm., and the lines not quite one mm. thick. Take a photograph of this, making the camera image the size of a lantern-slide. Mount the negative in a lantern, projecting the image on the blackboard. A lantern equipped with a 400-watt Mazda lamp will make the lines sufficiently visible for plotting even in a welllighted room. The lines are erased by turning off the lamp. by this process, provided the process can be reproduced upon a technical scale so as to obtain results commensurate with laboratory investigations. The process refers particularly to the sulphonation in the vapor phase of benzene, naphthalene, and other hydrocarbons. With a view to helping the chemical industry of this country, the Department of Agriculture hereby announces that it is ready to assist manufacturers who wish to produce these compounds. The expenses of the technical installation and of the labor and materials necessary will of necessity be borne by the firm, individual, or corporation wishing to manufacture the products. The chemists of the Color Laboratory will assist with expert advice, etc. The department reserves the right to publish all the data obtained from the technical experiments. This offer of assistance will not be held open DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, SCIENTIFIC BOOKS British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition, 1910. Natural History Report, Zoology, II., No. 8. Brachiopoda. By J. WILFRID JACKSON, F.G.S. 4to, pp. 177-202, 1 pl., July 27, 1918, London, British Museum. The various Antarctic expeditions in the years immediately preceding the war, obtained material greatly extending our knowledge of the fauna of the regions about the Southern Pole. This to a considerable extent reached the scientific world by means of publication, but a certain portion was delayed and, owing to war conditions, seemed likely indefinitely to continue so. It is therefore with peculiar pleasure that we have received the present contribution issued during the past summer by the trustees of the British Museum. The Brachiopoda obtained by the Terra Nova party form an interesting and valuable series adding considerably to our knowledge of the characteristics and geographical distribution of the Antarctic species. One of the forms |